Dessert - by Scarlett

From soufflé to parfait, you'll find my personal selection of yummy dessert recipes here and more!! So for home-made goodness or sweet treats around Sydney, be sure to check here - oh, and bon appétit!! Scarlett :)

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Dessert - September 2008

Chocolate Mascarpone Cheesecake with Fruit and Nuts

September 30th 2008 06:30

Chocolate Mascarpone Cheesecake with Fruit and Nuts

About Chocolate Mascarpone Cheesecake with Fruit and Nuts

This is quite simply a chocolate cheesecake to die for. If you like chocolate, if you like dark chocolate with fruit and nuts, and if you like luscious, velvet-textured mascarpone.

INGREDIENTS
Serves 6-8

For the filling

95 gm / 3½ oz dark chocolate with 70-75% cocoa solids
250 gm / 9 oz mascarpone, at room temperature
50 gm / 2 oz raisins
110 gm / 4 oz whole hazelnuts
200 gm / 7 oz 8% fat fromage frais, at room temperature
2 large eggs, at room temperature, lightly beaten
40gm / 1½ oz golden caster sugar

For the base

50 gm / 2 oz whole hazelnuts
110 gm / 4 oz sweet oat biscuits
25 gm / 1 oz butter, melted

To decorate

95 gm / 3½ oz dark chocolate with 70-75% cocoa solids for chocolate curls
1 teaspoon cocoa powder

To serve

crème fraîche / pouring cream

1. Preheat the oven to 200ºC / 400ºF.

2. Place all of the hazelnuts for the base and the filling into the oven and toast to a golden brown; use a timer and have a look after 5 minutes, giving them extra if they need it.

3. Remove the nuts from the hot tray to cool. Set aside 110 gm / 4 oz for the filling.

4. Meanwhile, make the base of the cheesecake by crushing the biscuits in a polythene bag with a rolling pin – not too finely, though, as it’s nice to have a fairly uneven texture, then chop the remaining 50 gm / 2 oz toasted hazelnuts.

5. Tip all the crushed biscuit crumbs into a bowl.

6. Add the chopped nuts and melted butter and mix everything very thoroughly before packing into the base of the cake tin, pressing it very firmly all over.

7. Place a 18 cm / 1 inch cake tin, preferably springform, 7.5 icm / 3 inches deep (if shallower than this, line the sides with baking parchment) in the oven and pre-bake the crust for 20 minutes.

8. Remove the cake tin and let it cool while you make the filling.

9. Reduce the oven temperature to 150 ºC / 300ºF.

10. To make the filling, break the chocolate into small squares.

11. Place the chocolate squares in a small, heatproof bowl, which should be sitting over a saucepan of barely simmering water, making sure the base of the bowl doesn’t touch the water.

12. Keeping the heat at its lowest, allow the chocolate to melt slowly – it should take about 3 minutes to melt and become smooth and glossy.

13. Remove from the heat.

14. Spoon the mascarpone and fromage frais into a large bowl and whisk them together until smooth, preferably with an electric hand whisk.

15. Add the eggs and sugar and give it another good whisking before adding the melted chocolate – use a rubber spatula so that you get every last bit of chocolate from the basin.

16. Lightly fold the chocolate into the egg mixture.

17. Add the raisins and toasted hazelnuts.

18. Pour the mixture into the tin, smoothing it out with the back of a spoon.

19. Place the tin on the centre shelf of the oven and bake for 1¼ hours.

20. Turn the oven off but leave the cheesecake inside until it’s completely cold.

21. Meanwhile, prepare the chocolate curls, melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water, make sure the base of the bowl doesn’t touch the water.

22. When the chocolate has melted, pour it on to a flat, smooth surface. It should be about 5 mm / ¼ inch thick.

23. Leave the chocolate to set.

24. Use a cheese slicer to make the chocolate curls, or a knife will do if you hold the blade in both hands. Just pull it all along the chocolate towards you and it should curl up. If it doesn’t curl and you end up with a pile of chocolate shaving they’ll look just as nice – either way, place them in a rigid plastic container and then put this in the fridge until you need them.

25. Before serving, sprinkle the surface of the cheesecake with chocolate curls, dust with a sprinkling of cocoa powder.

26. Serve in slices, with crème fraîche or pouring cream handed round separately.

Tips:

To prevent a baked cheesecake cracking, it’s best cooled slowly in a switched-off oven.

**From “The Delia Collection Chocolate” and “Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia”**

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Crostata Di Ciliege (Cherry Pie)

September 25th 2008 06:40

Crostata Di Ciliege (Cherry Pie)

About Crostata

A crostata is an Italian baked dessert tart, and a form of pie. It is traditionally prepared by folding the edges of the dough over the top of the fruit filling, creating a more “rough” look, rather than a uniform, circular shape. The fruit can be anything from apple to mixed berry to peaches.

About Kirsch

Kirschwasser, German for “cherry water”, often known simply as Kirsch (from German “kirsche” for “cherry”) in the English-speaking world, is a clear brandy made from double distillation of the fermented juice of a small black cherry. It is colourless because either it is not aged in wood or it is aged in barrels made of ash. The cherries used recently can be either sweet or sour, but in the past the sour morello cherry was used with the pit crushed down. As the morello cherry was originally grown all around the Black Forest in southern Germany, the drink is believed to have originated there.
Clear alcoholic beverages made from distilled fruit juices are common in southern Germany, western Austria and German-speaking Switzerland. In addition to Kirschwasser, typical drinks of this sort include Obstler (“fruity”, distilled from apple, or a mixture of apple and pear), Zwetschgenwasser (“plum water”) and Himbeergeist (“raspberry spirit”, made from grain spirit with unfermented raspberries added later, as fermented raspberries do not produce a good spirit). Such spirits are also distilled in France and French-speaking Switzerland, where they are known as eau de vie (“water of life”, the same term that is the root of the words akvait and whisky).
Unlike cherry liqueurs, Kirschwasser is not sweet. The best Kirschwassers have a highly refined taste with subtle flavours of cherry. Kirschwasser can be found in such mixed drinks as the Lady Finger, Florida Cocktail, and Black Forest.
Kirschwasser is sometimes drunk by itself. Traditionally, it is served cold in a very small glass and taken as an apéritif. However, people in the German-speaking regions where Kirschwasser originates would more usually serve it after dinner, and high-quality Kirschwasser would more likely be served at room temperature or warmed by the hands, like other brandies.
“Kirsch” is an essential ingredient in Swiss chees fondue recipes. It is also used in traditional German Schwärzwalder Kirschtorte (Black Forest gateau) that is believed to have originated from the 16th century.
Kirsch is also used in some recipes, for example in Kugelhopf, Black Forest and Black Russian Cakes.
Kirsch can also be found as filling for chocolate products. A typical piece of kirsch chocolate will consist of no more than 1 ml of Kirsch, surrounded by milk chocolate, with a film of hardened sugar between the two. The sugar acts as a stronger casing for the liquid contents than the usually soft chocolate, it also compensates for the lack of sweetness typical of Kirsch. Swiss chocolatiers Lindt and Camille Bloch, among others, have such a product.

INGREDIENTS
Serves 6

1½ lb ripe cherries
2 lemons, juice
⅔ cup granulated sugar
4 cloves
1 cinnamon stick
1 quantity Sweet plain pastry
1 cup cherry jam
2 teaspoons Kirsch (Cherry liqueur)
⅔ cup butter

For Sweet plain pastry

2 cups all-purpose flour
⅓ cup granulated sugar
pinch of salt
1 – 2 lemons, grated zest (optional)
½ cup butter, chopped
2 egg yolks

For the pan

butter, as needed
flour, as needed

1. Rinse the cherries under cold running water, dry well, and pit them.

2. Place in a bowl with the lemon juice, sugar, cloves, and cinnamon stick. Stir gently and leave to stand for 2 hours.

3. To prepare the pastry, combine the flour with the sugar and salt in a mixing bowl. Add the lemon zest, if using.

4. Add the butter and work it in with your fingertips until the mixture is fine and crumbly – the same texture as bread crumbs.

5. Transfer to a clean work surface and shape into a mound. Make a well in the center, add the egg yolks, and work them into the flour.

6. Knead the pastry briefly until it is smooth and elastic. Do not knead for too long, as this will make it though and chewy. Wrap in foil and chill in the refrigerator until ready to use.

7. Preheated oven at 375ºF.

8. Put the cherry jam in a small heavy-bottomed saucepan with the liqueur and butter. Simmer for 5 minutes, then set aside to cool.

9. Break off two-thirds of the pastry dough and roll it out so that it is large enough to line a fairly shallow 10-inch pie pan (grease with butter and flour).

10. Leave a narrow border of the pastry hanging over the sides.

11. Spread the cherry jam mixture over the bottom of the pastry and cover with the well-drained cherries.

12. Roll out the remaining pastry into a square sheet.

13. Use a fluted pastry wheel to cut it into ½-inch wide strips.

14. Place these over the Cherries in a lattice pattern.

15. Fold the overhanging pastry border over the ends of the lattice to form a rolled edge.

16. Bake for 40 minutes.

17. Serve warm.

**From “The Encyclopedia of Italian Cooking” and “Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia”**